By Annie Wen
Staff Writer

The sight of a fourth grade boy dressed in a tutu is always an interesting sight to see. But for the class of 4C at Austin Elementary, it is exciting for a unique reason.

The boy in the tutu promised his teacher he would wear the pink tulle ensemble if he won on “Jeopardy!”. On Nov. 22, Austin Elementary teacher John Pearson was crowned the most recent champion of the “Jeopardy! Teachers Tournament”.

Not only did the championship earn Pearson’s class the opportunity to see the fourth grader to fulfill his promise. but it also allowed Pearson to win $100,000 and the title of “Jeopardy!” champion.

“A lot of my really close friends didn’t want to know [that I had won “Jeopardy!”],” Pearson said. “That’s what killed me the most; I really wanted to call and tell them. After it all aired they asked me ‘How could you have kept this a secret?”

With the filming of the show occurring on Oct. 22-23, Pearson had to keep his win a secret from his students, colleagues and friends for some time. The tournament aired Nov. 11-22.

“Normally, there is a much greater lag time between taping and airing, but thankfully, we only had to wait for about two weeks,” Pearson said.

For someone who had pictured being on the “Jeopardy!” stage for so long, the opportunity was both exciting and nerve-wracking. However, the stage felt like home to Pearson. The years spent watching the show religiously paid off as he found himself in front of the cameras shaking host Alex Trebek’s hand.

“[When I won] it felt amazing, like I had achieved a life-long dream,” Pearson said. “Not only did I go on my favorite game show, but I won in tremendous fashion. I was super excited, happy, thankful, relieved and proud all at the same time.”

Pearson and the team of fourth grade teachers watched the episodes together as the season unfolded. Fellow teacher Lindsay Harris even watched it from her hospital bed as she was scheduled to have surgery right as the tournament began.

“The whole experience has been very exciting for the school, and even more exciting for his students,” Harris said. “It’s been a great lesson about accomplishing a goal, working hard for something you want and not backing down in the face of something that could potentially be scary.”

Before teaching, Pearson’s original field of work was in engineering. After earning his Bachelor in Engineering from Duke University in 1995, Pearson went on to obtain a Master’s in Material Science from Texas A&M University in 1997. Upon graduation, Pearson began work as an thermal and electrical engineer. After almost four years in the field, Pearson was laid off by the company.

“For about a year, I kind of just bounced around,” Pearson said. “And then I finally decided ‘OK, I’m going to be a teacher.’”

Pearson received his teaching certificate from SMU and began his teaching career in Dallas ISD at Hotchkiss Elementary in January of 2003. After 10 years, he made the switch to Coppell and is currently a fourth grade math teacher at Austin Elementary.

A longtime fan of the show, Pearson had always wanted to be on Jeopardy.

“The number one factor [for auditioning for the show] is that I’ve always loved the show and I would do well on it when I’m sitting at home,” Pearson said. “And there’s the opportunity to make a whole lot of money.”

To qualify for the show, prospective contestants had to pass a 50-question online test. Pearson took this in January of 2013. Select candidates would then receive a call notifying them that they had been picked for the next round. The next phase took place over spring break in San Antonio where Pearson took part in an in-person audition which consisted of another 50-question quiz, a mock game and an interview.

“When I told them [the people running the audition] I was a teacher they said ‘Oh you double qualify, you could be on the regular show or you could be on the Teachers Tournament’ and I knew they had me pegged for the Teachers Tournament,” Pearson said. “When they called me up I was actually in my classroom, it was the week before school started.”

To prepare for the show Pearson used reference books, specifically ones with a lot of facts on different aspects of the world, such as geography, presidents, world capitals, world history, art and composers.

“From watching the show long enough I know which categories they’re real heavy on,” Pearson said. “Those are the ones I really tried to study pretty hard.”

Pearson would eventually excel through the entire tournament and be crowned the winner. With a 19 month old son, Drew, with wife Tamara, the money has been a great benefit to the family, but Pearson says the best thing about winning Jeopardy has been the experience.

“I wouldn’t change anything for the world,” Pearson said. “The 14 other teachers are just awesome people with great sportsmanship. We’ve stayed friends, we even have our own Facebook group.”

Pearson became known for the last answer he put up in the show. Instead of answering the final question Pearson wagered nothing and chose to write “I love you Drew” as his answer, in honor of his son.

“I wasn’t really watching the scoreboard throughout the game,” Pearson said. “I kind of had a sense. I went on a run at the end of the game; I just knew I was getting a lot of questions right. It wasn’t until the end that I really looked at the scores. I added up all of my scores and I realized I had 800 more than she could possibly get. It wasn’t until [“Jeopardy” host Alex Trebek] actually put the score up on the board that showed that I was ahead was when I could finally relax.”

With a nice amount of money in his pocket, Pearson has made plans accordingly on how to spend and save his winnings.

“I’m going to buy a new car,” Pearson said. “I need a new one. My dad, brother and I are going to go to the Final Four this year. Other than that a lot of the money is going to go into Drew’s tuition fund and sit in our bank and be a cushion.”

Pearson’s wife Tamara and his son Drew were not able to attend the taping of the show but they supported Pearson his entire run on the show.

“I didn’t go with him, so that first day of filming I was very nervous, especially when it got to be late in the afternoon and I hadn’t heard anything from him,” Mrs. Pearson said. “On the second day he filmed, I was surprisingly more relaxed. I have to say I was pretty confident he was going to win it all. Andrew, our son, and I were at my parents’ home when John called and asked me how I felt about $100,000 being deposited into our account. I would have been more surprised if he hadn’t won it all. He watches ‘Jeopardy!’ everyday and he studied a lot, so I just knew he could do it.”

After the win, Pearson is back in the 4C classroom teaching multiplication and decimals, a subject much different than the topics that appeared on “Jeopardy!”. In addition to teaching and being a father and husband, Pearson is currently preparing for the Tournament of Champions but has no plans to leave teaching. The author of three books, Pearson is planning on writing more books but his focus for the time being is grading papers and running after a two year old.

“I’m not pursuing anything that’s going to take me away from teaching at least for a while,” Pearson said. “It’s very rewarding.”